Geraldine “The Jazz Lady” de Haas, who was the driving force behind the creation of the annual Chicago Jazz Festival, died July 28 from natural causes. In 1974, following jazz great Duke Ellington’s death, Mrs. de Haas helped organize a tribute to Ellington in Grant Park that became an annual event and united the city’s jazz community. It evolved into the city’s first Chicago Jazz Festival in 1979. Mrs. de Haas joined the Free Street Theater as an actress and singer and raised her children in the South Shore neighborhood. Founder of Jazz United and the driving force behind the move to build a Jazz museum, Geraldine De Haas smiles at 2255 E. 75th St. on July 24, 1998.